NEW MOON OF BANDS SPREAD ALL OVER VOLUME9 NUMBER^ / ? PABLO, MONTANA 59855
FEBRUARY 1,1980
Judges Move to Assert Tribal Sovereignty
The current state of tribal legal affairs is proving that our prediction for 1980 was accurate: things are getting interesting around here, as far as the sovereignty issue goes.
First, the Joseph Case was dismissed on January 16th by District Court Judge Jack L Green. To quote from the official notice about the matter
"Defendants in this case [Darryl and Nancy Joseph], who were charged with selling alcoholic beverages without a State license, moved to dismiss the Information filed with this Court for lack of jurisdiction. Defendants claimed that the State lacked personal and subject matter jurisdiction over enrolled members of an Indian Tribe doing business in an establishment wholly owned by a Tribal government and solely within the exterior boundaries of a Reservation.
"After due deliberation on the basis of the briefs, and with the assurance that federal law and Tribal ordinance promulgated pursuant to that federal law will protect the interests of public welfare and safety, this Court has concluded that the State does lack jurisdiction to impose its liquor licensing requirements upon these defendants in the factual setting given.
"Accordingly, the Information filed against the defendants is hereby dismissed."
This by no means says that Indians can sell liquor without some kind of regulation, however. While the State of Montana cannot require - in Green's opinion -that an Indian businessman selling liquor on Indian land be licensed, the tribal governing body can, and
that's just what the C.S.K.T. lawyers are busy doing right now - polishing up Ordinance 34-A^the Tribes' 1960 liquor regulations.
In a second matter, the Tribes' right to join two of its membership in holy wedlock was challenged recently:
During the last hours of 1979, a young Arlee couple applied for a marriage license prior to their wedding that same afternoon. A Lake Co. clerk refused to issue the permit, though, claiming that the bride-to-be's tribal divorce (from a previous marriage) wasn't recognized by the State.
When Tribal Judge Don Dupuis heard this, he decided to modify the county paperwork to reflect the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' governmental authority and had a dozen or so copies quickly printed. The printer's ink barely dry on the paper, Dupuis then dashed to Arlee and duly married the by-then distraught couple.
Thus Lee Ann Cutfinger and Harry Paul Lozeau became the first 100% tribally sanctioned married couple of the decade.
What kind of problems - if any - with the non-Indian government may be stirred up by the move remains to be seen. The prevailing opinion, at least here on the reservation at least, nonetheless maintains that the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' government has the right to do all the usual things other governments do - marry people, divorce them, register eligible ones to vote ... or sell them a permit to sell beer.